552 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FARM. 



Flesh-formers. Heat-givers. Ash. 



28.30 65.00 7.70 



25.00 115.00 16.G4 



2.25 51.88 4.51 



55.55 231.88 28.85 



Such, then, may be taken as a typical formula of the daily 

 food in respect to flesh-formers, heat-givers, and mineral mat- 

 ters in the fattening of oxen for the market. 



This subject, however, would be incomplete without some 

 reference to the several modes in which oxen are put up during 

 winter in the course of feeding them for market. We find 

 cattle are fattened during winter in what are called in Scotland 

 byres that is, in buildings like cow-houses or in boxes, or in 

 what are named hammels, or in sheds with a court attached, 

 fit to accommodate several oxen. In the byres or cow-houses, 

 the oxen, being closely tied by the neck, each in its stall, all the 

 winter, and permitted barely any movement, can hardly be 

 supposed to carry on the natural actions of a living frame in 

 a manner fit to produce flesh of the best quality, while it is at 

 the same time to be feared that they must be rendered more 

 liable to fall into such diseases as are prevalent in any season. 

 No doubt, if things go on well by the absence of any epizootic 

 distemper, the animal may, by the interruption of all waste by 

 exertion, attain a greater weight at a smaller cost than by any 

 other kind of management. Yet it should not be forgotten 

 that this advantage may be obtained for a time at the risk of 

 great subsequent loss by the violation of the indubitable maxim, 

 that the more naturally an animal is kept the better is it able 

 to resist the invasion of epizootic disease. 



What is called feeding oxen in boxes, is keeping one large 

 ox or two small oxen in a covered crib, in which the animal 

 or animals have room to turn about, and may at their will 

 stand or lie upon their litter. This is, cceteris paribus, a more 



